Sister Mine
by glassesgurls
Summary: She's died, been banned from Heaven, and then sent to be reborn into an impartial universe. A pretty alright deal, for the most part. "Azula." She catches that one word. Oh, fuck no. Rated T, ratings subject to change.
1. Chapter 1

**1: Crash**

It's an accident, really it is.

 _Pain, burning, wait, what's wrong, can't feel anything, Kaden, oh my god where's Kaden, no, oh no, nononononono, NO! KADEN!_

Dying doesn't hurt. Watching him die, watching the light fade from those teary hazel eyes, that sheer agony is terrible in strength.

" _Sadie…"_

Her name sounds foreign in that broken tone, in words passing through his lips. Scared, he sounds so scared. But fear, that she's used to. He's seven, for god's sake. He still crawls into either her or their parents' bed when he has nightmares.

Most of the time it's hers.

It's how hard the two short syllables of her name are when he says them. The blood passing from his lips and onto his blue shirt with Captain America emblazoned on the front when he calls out for her.

Kaden looks at her, moves his mouth to say more words, but she can't hear them. Quiet, so quiet. His eyes look into hers, plead with her like they do when he's asking for her to sneak him an extra oreo. Hazel, bright combinations of brown and gold and green coming to meet with her boring brown eyes.

His eyes don't close.

-:-

She's pretty sure hers did.

-:-

When she's dead, she knows it. It's not exactly something she can deny and she sure as hell doesn't want to deny it. The only thing Sadie wants is to find Kaden and if she denies she's dead, she denies the possibility of ever seeing her baby brother.

The only problem with that is that she can't seem to get past that damn white gate.

-:-

An error, the angel who meets her there says. A mistake in some paperwork (though she's 102% sure that's a load of crap because why would God need paperwork?) is keeping Kaden in and her out. It's what will _always_ keep her out.

The angel apologizes to her, but she can't seem to find any emotion in that flawless face.

For some reason, she knows that all this is on purpose. She's being punished. Or she managed to piss off the wrong person. Or maybe she really belongs in Hell but they happen to be at full capacity. All Sadie knows is that the only thing keeping her out of Heaven is the people who run the place.

Well, fuck them.

-:-

Sadie tries her luck in Hell, with a varying degree of success.

On the plus side, she can actually manage to get into the place and out of the black void that eats up the space between the two halves of the afterlife. The demons are nice enough; gruff and foul-mouthed in a way that reminds her of her grandfather and the biker gang that he often associated with, but friendly enough to help her get into the Main Office to visit the prince of darkness himself.

On the downside, she was right about someone not wanting her to be in Heaven. Not even Satan has enough power to override whatever curse was placed on her. She's never going to see Kaden again.

She falls to her knees then and there, laughing hysterically as her shoulders shake and her chest contracts with hiccuping sobs.

-:-

Satan offers her a deal. Sadie's hesitant (she's not an idiot, she knows its common sense to not make a literal deal with the devil) but she listens anyway.

His suggestion is another dimension, one where the afterlife is neutral. One where she can be reborn.

She asks what the catch is as soon as she hears the admittedly sweet deal. When the devil tells her it's free of charge, the first words out of her mouth are, "Yeah, and I'm a twelve-foot tall hippopotamus with fairy wings. As you can see, I too can spew ridiculous bullshit. Now seriously, what's the catch?"

Satan laughs in a surprisingly un-ominous way.

"I like you, kid. Damn, now I'll feel guilty if I don't help you out."

-:-

She's back into the void before she knows what happens and enveloped in sickly warmth even faster than that. Hot, so so so hot that she wants to puke, but the heat is strangely comforting.

She wants to cry about this, about everything. Dying, Kaden, Heaven, Hell, and this new dimension she's being thrust into. She finds that she can't.

It's undecided whether or not Sadie is grateful for this.

-:-

After months of sickening, comforting heat and reddish blackness comes furious jostling and movement. Sadie is more than a little indignant about this.

She's beyond pissed when she is unceremoniously shoved into freezing cold and loud exclamations. She screams, anger and bitterness and despair collecting together in a piercing wail.

-:-

"Azula."

-:-

She catches that one word. Oh, fuck no.


	2. Chapter 2

**2: Family**

Zuko loves his sister, honestly he does.

Azula is just… strange. She has always been strange, so how she acts isn't exactly worrying. He just feels like _she's_ supposed to be the older one, not him.

She's quiet, too quiet and in a sad way that has him worrying about her. She's never looking at him, just at the air in front of him like her eyes don't know how to see him there. She's cold to their father and softly distant towards their mother. She doesn't play unless he or Ty Lee or Mai want to. She's old, even though she's the little sister; smart, even though she's the little sister.

Azula is weird. And, she's his little sister. So Zuko just loves her more and he protects her. From the quietness and sadness and oldness. He keeps her safe from her own nature because she's his little sister and that makes it his job to make her smile and laugh without sadness eating away at it.

-:-

Sadie, because she's still Sadie to no one but herself, can't say she's exactly unhappy with her new life. It's alright enough; her mother is kind and gentle and her brother is so sweetly protective of her it makes her heart hurt. She has everything she could ever hope to ask for in this life.

Except it's not her life.

It's the life of a psychotic princess and antagonist of a children's show. It's a life she's usurping, for better or worse, and one she isn't at ease with. Because Azula isn't supposed to be loved by a sweet older brother or kind but concerned mother.

She's supposed to be resented by her brother, feared by her mother, prided upon by her father. Azula isn't supposed to be Sadie; a college student who lived with her parents and looked after her much younger brother, binged watched cartoons and anime, and died in a car crash only to be flung into a new life by a deity doing her a favor.

-:-

She can't help but feel a little guilty about this.

Then again, isn't the world better off without Azula?

-:-

Zuko is a sweet kid, but he isn't her brother no matter how much she'd love him to be.

He isn't Kaden, sweet and slightly whiny Kaden who loves nerdy stuff like Naruto and Marvel comics. He isn't the kid she dropped her classes to babysit when their mom got sick and their dad couldn't take time off work. He isn't her baby brother.

"Azula, I drew you a picture!"

But goddamn if he isn't coming close to filling that place in her life, despite technically being older.

-:-

Zuko notices that his sister is a lot better at bending than him.

Her moves are more precise, hold more intensity than his own. But whenever their teacher turns his attention to her, she quickly adjusts to make her moves sloppier or even trip over her own feet if she's feeling particularly theatrical.

He also notices that she doesn't let anyone else notice it. So, when their teacher compliments him but not his sister, he can't help but feel a sick feeling in his stomach, even when Azula herself tells him he did a good job with one of her rare happy smiles.

When Zuko confronts his sister about this later, when they have a bit of free time after dinner and before bed, she just gives him a shrug and tired-looking smirk.

"You're my best friend, dummy. I want you to do well."

Then his sister makes a show odd yawning and announces that she's going to bed. Zuko nods dumbly at her declaration, mulling over his sister's words. His sister is smarter than him, calmer than him, a better bender than him. His little sister is just better than him, and yet she intentionally messes up so that Zuko's minor accomplishments look all the better next to her failures. After a moment, Zuko comes to a realization; Azula is much better at being an older sibling than he is.

That night, Zuko makes one promise in a very long list of promises regarding his sister; to make sure he can be good in every single area Azula is bad in. Not so that he can feel superior, but to protect her as she's been protecting him.


End file.
